Bioluminescent petunias at home(npr.org)
npr.org
Bioluminescent petunias at home
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/08/1242346659/genetically-modified-bioluminescent-petunias-make-their-own-light
55 comments
Do they smell like normal Petunias?
They smell exactly like normal petunias with flowers being floral, and the leaves smelling like a typical nightshade.
Immediately out of the shipping box they’ll be a bit rank, which is normal and expected from keeping a nightshade in a box for 3 days. It quickly dissipates.
Immediately out of the shipping box they’ll be a bit rank, which is normal and expected from keeping a nightshade in a box for 3 days. It quickly dissipates.
Yup! Floral/sweet, strong but not overpowering.
I have these! They really do glow in the dark — but it’s much easier to capture in a photo than see with the naked eye. (Dim) “green tinted moonlight” is a good description of it. Or imagine a barely charged glow in the dark object. Still, cool technology!
Same here! I agree with your description, but my wife and I still absolutely love it. It’s brighter when your eyes have adjusted to the dark for a while too.
An astronomy trick is to look away slightly from them since the fovea has no rods your slightly peripheral vision is more light sensitive.
Nice remark, and expected. I did some research into this some time ago. We were looking into "bio-light" using luciferase (the mentioned firefly protein). The thing is that that protein emits one photon for 1 ATP (fuel) molecule. The amount of ATP needed to make a 200 lumen plant, is kilograms per day. Completely unfeasible.
We concluded that indeed "green tinted moonlight" was about feasible, maybe not even. Seems like now they have a better way, too bad there are no details.
We concluded that indeed "green tinted moonlight" was about feasible, maybe not even. Seems like now they have a better way, too bad there are no details.
Given the human eye's sensitivity, I think it's a good first step.
In a dark room with fully-acclimated eyes, they definitely glow.
Mine are still perking up from shipping, so we'll see what output they finally achieve, but people forget you can see in a room lit by a single LED. It doesn't take much to be a night-light.
In a dark room with fully-acclimated eyes, they definitely glow.
Mine are still perking up from shipping, so we'll see what output they finally achieve, but people forget you can see in a room lit by a single LED. It doesn't take much to be a night-light.
They published their strategy. It utilizes the bioluminescence pathway from a fungus that uses caffeic acid to generate light.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610436/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610436/
It is interesting that this effect is not carried by a chromoplast, as fungi don't have plastids.
The mechanism for the bioluminescence must reside in some other cellular organelle.
However, if the genes are added to plastid DNA instead of the nucleus, then female seeds would have an exact copy of the bioluminescent DNA additions, since only DNA in the nucleus changes at fertilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid
The mechanism for the bioluminescence must reside in some other cellular organelle.
However, if the genes are added to plastid DNA instead of the nucleus, then female seeds would have an exact copy of the bioluminescent DNA additions, since only DNA in the nucleus changes at fertilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid
Mine just arrived today. Haven’t had a chance to see it glow yet. It arrived a little wilted so I’m letting it get some light and rest before becoming a spectacle
Edit: couldn’t resist. Took it into a dark room and it indeed glows with an eerie light. Science!
Edit: couldn’t resist. Took it into a dark room and it indeed glows with an eerie light. Science!
Does this have anything to do with the company that was promising street lighting with glowing plants in a kickstarter many years ago[1]?
I recognized the picture of the glowing tobacco plant.
[1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-pla...
I recognized the picture of the glowing tobacco plant.
[1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-pla...
Wow, they pretty much scammed people off half a million, and they got lauded for it.
Then, two years later, one of the guys behind the scam off-ed himself. No idea if it was related to it or not, but that's too high of a price to pay for a meager amount of $$$.
Then, two years later, one of the guys behind the scam off-ed himself. No idea if it was related to it or not, but that's too high of a price to pay for a meager amount of $$$.
No, completely unrelated company.
developer's website
https://light.bio/
> Although typically regarded as annuals, petunias can be grown indoors if placed in a sunny spot.
That's some weasel wording here. Are they still annuals if they're grown indoors or not?
That's some weasel wording here. Are they still annuals if they're grown indoors or not?
It's a meaningful distinction.
Cilantro, by contrast, is a proper annual. It's a nightmare to keep it from going to seed, and it won't survive long after producing seeds. With a lot of work (proper pruning, temperatures, water, light wavelengths, ...) you can keep it alive more than a year, but in the wild it's definitely an annual no matter where you plant it on Earth.
Petunias are happy to live multiple years. Like tomatoes [0], they're originally from more tropical areas and are perennials so long as they aren't exposed to frost, against which they have no defenses. In the anglosphere we've borrowed a lot of plants from elsewhere in the world, and in the presence of a proper winter we tend to treat them as annuals instead.
[0] https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/tomato-tree-in-epcots-l...
Cilantro, by contrast, is a proper annual. It's a nightmare to keep it from going to seed, and it won't survive long after producing seeds. With a lot of work (proper pruning, temperatures, water, light wavelengths, ...) you can keep it alive more than a year, but in the wild it's definitely an annual no matter where you plant it on Earth.
Petunias are happy to live multiple years. Like tomatoes [0], they're originally from more tropical areas and are perennials so long as they aren't exposed to frost, against which they have no defenses. In the anglosphere we've borrowed a lot of plants from elsewhere in the world, and in the presence of a proper winter we tend to treat them as annuals instead.
[0] https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/tomato-tree-in-epcots-l...
Annual/perennial isn’t a hard and fast distinction with plants, as it is often condition dependent.
In outdoor conditions where freezing occurs (most of the United States), outdoor petunias can be considered annuals as frost or near freezing temperatures will harm them. However they do not die after simply seeding.
However petunias moved indoors for the winter will generally survive for multiple years when kept out of cold weather (best to keep them above 50 degrees F). Petunias are in the nightshade family, and behave like you would expect if you have experience with members of the family.
At some point an indoor plant may decline or die for a variety of reasons (bacterial and fungal disease buildup can be an issue), however petunias are notable for being very easy to propagate via cuttings, as such they can be kept alive/multiplied indefinitely if you are willing to put in the work and research into how to care for them.
It should be noted that light.bio is perfectly fine with personally propagating them if you like, so long as you aren’t selling them: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica...
In outdoor conditions where freezing occurs (most of the United States), outdoor petunias can be considered annuals as frost or near freezing temperatures will harm them. However they do not die after simply seeding.
However petunias moved indoors for the winter will generally survive for multiple years when kept out of cold weather (best to keep them above 50 degrees F). Petunias are in the nightshade family, and behave like you would expect if you have experience with members of the family.
At some point an indoor plant may decline or die for a variety of reasons (bacterial and fungal disease buildup can be an issue), however petunias are notable for being very easy to propagate via cuttings, as such they can be kept alive/multiplied indefinitely if you are willing to put in the work and research into how to care for them.
It should be noted that light.bio is perfectly fine with personally propagating them if you like, so long as you aren’t selling them: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica...
They're tender perennials. Temps under 40 degrees kill them, so they're functionally annuals in most of the US.
I plan to keep mine indoors with grow lights.
I plan to keep mine indoors with grow lights.
This seems like a horrible idea considering how much plants exchange genes even cross species very easily ?
Never mind what effect it might have to night pollinators and other ecosystem effects.
I look forward to fast forwarding a few decades where the entire ecosystem is either collapsing or glowing because of N bio engineered species we didn’t properly understand before releasing.
Not that we shouldn't be careful with any new technology, but do keep in mind that humans have been "genetically modifying organisms" for tens of thousands of years - that's how we ended up with many of the plants you see around, all of the food we eat, pets like dogs, etc.
The engineering is becoming more exotic, that's for sure, but it's not new by any stretch
The engineering is becoming more exotic, that's for sure, but it's not new by any stretch
>keep in mind that humans have been "genetically modifying organisms" for tens of thousands of years
That's called selective breeding and it's not even in the same ballpark as modern genetic modification of organisms.
Framing modern genetic modification as a mere exotic form of selective breeding is a dishonest frame that downplays the powers of modern biotech as well as the potential danger it poses.
That's called selective breeding and it's not even in the same ballpark as modern genetic modification of organisms.
Framing modern genetic modification as a mere exotic form of selective breeding is a dishonest frame that downplays the powers of modern biotech as well as the potential danger it poses.
"Modern genetic modification", as you put it, has been happening with crops and food manufacture for DECADES.
IMO, it is dishonest of YOU to suggest that this form of modern genetic modification is somehow new and scary and untested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food
IMO, it is dishonest of YOU to suggest that this form of modern genetic modification is somehow new and scary and untested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food
I think we're safe. If it was advantageous for plants to glow this would probably have already evolved. It already evolved in animals and fungus, microbes etc.
When Taxa was building this a decade ago, the luminescence genes got immediately outcompeted because they’re hopelessly energy intensive.
[deleted]
While I suspect that’s possible in theory, I think it’s far more likely that ecosystem collapse comes from something like pesticides or habitat loss than gmo.
Figuring out why glowing gives a species such an advantage that it outcompetes non-glowing competitors would be an interesting post hoc study.
Just my opinion but I imagine this burns energy for no benefit. I think the plant released into the wild might survive for a little but eventually that glowing gene would be switched off.
No EU options? :'(
Very much illegal in EU. You would be facing anthrax level penalties for importing or growing them.
Imported plants may be out of order because of biosafety and liability laws, but is there a ban anywhere on genetic manipulation of house plants, if done by an EU company?
In principle there isn't. But there are laws about introduction of such organisms. So it's fine to do that in a lab. But the moment you put the plant in a pot on your balcony you are in trouble.
You need official approval for that. But obtaining it is borderline impossible. Not even the biggest agrotech corporations are trying anymore. There are only a handful of approved organisms, and some countries in EU go even further and ban them as well.
So nobody can use them, so nobody will sell them, so nobody will develop them. There is an ongoing effort to bypass these restrictions for CRISPR based technologies. But who knows how effective will that be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_genetic_engineer...
You need official approval for that. But obtaining it is borderline impossible. Not even the biggest agrotech corporations are trying anymore. There are only a handful of approved organisms, and some countries in EU go even further and ban them as well.
So nobody can use them, so nobody will sell them, so nobody will develop them. There is an ongoing effort to bypass these restrictions for CRISPR based technologies. But who knows how effective will that be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_genetic_engineer...
Sometimes I have to agree with Victoria Nuland.
they'll just seize, destroy, and notify, you'd never even see them.
I have to wonder whether in the coming decades we'll have types of nature preserves or botanical amusement parks where you can stroll through entirely bioluminescent fields (small fields!) of trees and shrubs. Not unlike Avatar, but maybe not (yet) so strongly vibrant. :)
Get them to react to sound and we'll have raves in an enchanted forest. :}
Mine showed up really stressed. Leaves were all crumbly, I had to prune it back to nothing but tender stems, hopefully it survives. So far very little glow.
As others have said, it’s easier to see in total darkness or using long exposure and it needs a LOT of Sun.
This would be awesome as a bedroom night light for kids afraid of the dark!
This won't be even remotely bright enough to work as a night light. Think worn out and old glow in the dark chewing gum sticker rather than night light.
"If your children are terrified of the dark, make fun of them with our new ectoplasmic glow in the dark effect. Now shaped as tiny ghostly brides".
I would totally buy it.
I would totally buy it.
> these long exposure photos aren’t quite what the human eye sees; it’s more like green tinted moonlight
Awesome that it can be done at all but sounds like the images give an exaggerated impression of the glow.
Awesome that it can be done at all but sounds like the images give an exaggerated impression of the glow.
Human eye accomodates well to darkness.
When I enter a dark room from a lit room, I initially can't see anything. But given 60-80 seconds, I become able to clearly see the shapes of furniture around me, and even the pattern on the carpet, even though the room is lit only by a couple of indicator LEDs from a router sitting on the top of a closet.
I bet that after a few minutes in a dark room, the petunias will look very visible and detailed. The room has to be dark though; a distant streetlamp through the window would easily overpower a flower.
When I enter a dark room from a lit room, I initially can't see anything. But given 60-80 seconds, I become able to clearly see the shapes of furniture around me, and even the pattern on the carpet, even though the room is lit only by a couple of indicator LEDs from a router sitting on the top of a closet.
I bet that after a few minutes in a dark room, the petunias will look very visible and detailed. The room has to be dark though; a distant streetlamp through the window would easily overpower a flower.
Will plants grown from seeds taken from these plants become bioluminescent, too?
The seeds can result in glowing plants, but it’s not reliable enough to market or expect to have good results: https://old.reddit.com/r/ginkgobioworks/comments/1bdzzhw/any...
>The seeds do not yet breed true; that requires a much longer development timeline.
Instead I’d suggest learning to propagate via cuttings, which petunias are one of the easiest plants to try with. Which they are fine with: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica...
>And no problem making new plants from seed or cutting. We just don’t want you to set up a new business (took us 10 years to make this plant, so yeah…).
>The seeds do not yet breed true; that requires a much longer development timeline.
Instead I’d suggest learning to propagate via cuttings, which petunias are one of the easiest plants to try with. Which they are fine with: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica...
>And no problem making new plants from seed or cutting. We just don’t want you to set up a new business (took us 10 years to make this plant, so yeah…).
Good find. Thanks for the link.
Unclear so far; the company hasn't said. Most petunia hybrids don't breed true.
Petunias are readily propagated via cuttings, though.
Petunias are readily propagated via cuttings, though.
Note that the website says: "Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted."
From an article that was on the front page a while ago:
"When asked whether Light Bio is worried about plant lovers sharing cuttings of the petunia with friends, Sarkisyan says that although the firm owns patents for the technology, it doesn’t plan to crack down aggressively on the behaviour. “The most positive way of dealing with it is to come up with new, better products,” he says."
The next line being "These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use."
As with copyrighted material, you get in trouble largely on redistribution, especially at large/commercial scale; I'm certain the company will be keeping a close eye on nurseries, eBay, Etsy, etc. Similar tags have been common practice with roses and other patented plants for decades.
As with copyrighted material, you get in trouble largely on redistribution, especially at large/commercial scale; I'm certain the company will be keeping a close eye on nurseries, eBay, Etsy, etc. Similar tags have been common practice with roses and other patented plants for decades.
Yeah, but that was not the question. I was merely interested in whether the genes responsible for the bioluminiscence will be inherited by the offspring. All sorts of funny things can happen when a variety (or cultivar, or whatever) is pollinated with the same variety.
Does anyone know if the genes in question are dominant or recessive?
Does anyone know if the genes in question are dominant or recessive?
Good luck. Home gardeners, at least, are absolutely going to propagate their own plants. Gift to friends, etc.
Sure, this patent nonsense might protect against broad sales but it won't be much use in stopping their spread. And like, if someone plants these outside, you think the bees are checking patents?
Sure, this patent nonsense might protect against broad sales but it won't be much use in stopping their spread. And like, if someone plants these outside, you think the bees are checking patents?
"you think the bees are checking patents?"
Framable
Framable
Maybe I'm the only one who finds it notable that NPR doesn't know that fungi is plural.
After some time in sunlight and getting watered, the glowing was a bit better and I could see more of the flowers. Once the sun got lower I put them under some led lighting.
At my final check for the day I could start to make out some of the leaves. The glow is still faint and requires adjusting to darkness, but didn’t take nearly as long.
As it recovers and starts growing vigorously, I do expect it to improve, though I doubt it will ever be capable of competing with most ambient light from any nearby sources.
Basically I got what I was expecting and look forward to them continuing to develop the tech, though I do think the company should be more cautious with their marketing images. I’m well aware of how good cameras are at being ad-hoc nightvision since as an agronomist I sometimes end up still trying to scout things when it’s getting dark, and my pictures still look like near daylight. Other people though may end up a bit too optimistic, and disappointed.
Eventually I’ll figure out how to take a picture that reflects what I actually see.
I’d love to see this applied to English daisies.